Triumph of the Nerds

Remember MS-DOS, the internal program that ran your PC until Windows came along? It was actually copied from Q-DOS which stood for Quick & Dirty Operating System. That's just one of the delicious tidbits uncovered in this outstanding history of the personal computer. With the true gift of a natural born storyteller, author/host Robert Cringeley takes us back in time to 1975 and the invention of the Altair 8800 by Ed Roberts (now a doctor, not a billionaire like certain other players in the story). It weren't much to look at as they say, but nerds by the score flocked to it, and two of those nerds--Paul Allen and Bill Gates--wrote a language (Basic) for it, while two other nerds--Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs--built a better version of the computer and started a company called Apple. In the roughly two decades that followed, IBM squared off against Apple (and lost), while in the background Bill Gate's company Microsoft ("where you work any 80 hours a week you choose") made alliances with everybody. One of the most fascinating tales of our time. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)